At Code 2023, he noted that of all the VLOPs, TikTok hasn’t laid off members of its trust and safety team and that it continues to invest heavily in identifying inauthentic behavior. Not the answer I was expecting!
This report by 404 Media discusses an unnamed Taylor Swift fan TikTok account with 90,000 followers that finds people in viral videos and releases their information, like name, occupation, and social media profiles. It does this using PimEyes, one of several facial recognition search engines. And at least so far, TikTok has declined to remove it.
One target told me he felt violated after the TikTok account using facial recognition tech targeted him. Another said they initially felt flattered before “that promptly gave way to worry.” All of the victims I spoke to echoed one general point—this behavior showed them just how exposed we all potentially are simply by existing in public.
And when they complained to TikTok about their treatment, they were retailiated against, according to a complaint filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Nnete Matima and Joël Carter say their work was sabotaged.
“I did everything in terms of filing complaints, reporting things going up the chain of command — I did everything I possibly could do, but found that the more I spoke up for myself, the worse I was treated,” Matima said in an interview with Bloomberg.
[The Washington Post]
Because he buys US lawmakers.
Jeff Yass owns roughly 7 percent of TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, a stake worth about $21b or most of the bs in his personal $28b fortune. He’s also a top contributor to the Club for Growth (donating $61m or about 24 percent of its total), a conservative group that rallied Republican opposition to a TikTok ban, with Yass spending millions more to support his most influential allies in the cause.
It’s all very gross and par for the course and nobody likes it and LOOK THERE’S A NEW MARVEL THING HAHA IT’S SO GOOD!
Twitch launched the ability to edit vertical clips in its clips editor in May, and starting this week, you’ll be able to publish those clips directly to TikTok from the editor. Seems like a handy way to save a few steps.
Perhaps you’ve seen them: two girls, one wordlessly mixing a drink while the other one snacks. Why don’t they talk?
Honestly, the internet is too loud. The feed is too loud. TikTok is too loud. I’m scrolling and I just want everyone to shut the fuck up.
Turns out it’s still possible to have mystique on social media.
[The Face]
Craig Fay’s TikTok about Die Hard is a good two-minute watch if you want to one-up someone the next time they want to drop the Die Hard Christmas trivia on you.
It’s more nuanced than Fay presents, so here’s some supplemental reading from Den of Geek with more detail about Die Hard’s sequel history.
The Wall Street Journal writes about the ubiquity of those unauthorized, user-uploaded movie clips on TikTok that may sometimes show up in your recommendations on the service.
WSJ reports that uploaders “appear to” game the algorithm with bot followers that boost a video’s popularity to get it into users’ FYP. Then, once users linger on a few, the algorithm surfaces more.
[The Wall Street Journal]
I’ve been playing F-Zero 99 every chance I get since Nintendo released it this week. It took 43 races, but I got first place... by the skin of my teeth.
It stung a little when Thursday’s Nintendo Direct showed the opening of a race from the SNES F-Zero and it wasn’t a surprise F-Zero GX sequel announcement, but to its credit, F-Zero 99 is a blast.
